]]>Carrying forward a movement that began with a petition to undo Mid-Multnomah County’s annexation to Portland in 1985, members of the renamed Portland Community Equality Movement are still determined to gain services and respect for the efforts they have been making to get the city’s attention.

East Portland activist Collene Swenson poses in front of the nuisance property that began her involvement in not only her Hazelwood neighborhood, but also the city’s governing structure.

When it became clear the de-annexation effort would not succeed, group members switched their focus to changing Portland’s governing structure.

They want the various segments of the city to be directly represented.

In the case of east Portland, the group hopes more and better services will be provided if it has a city council member who lives in one of the east Portland neighborhoods, instead of one who has been elected at large.

Of course, this still requires a petition to be turned in, scanned for legality, and compliant with other requirements that are not necessarily easy for the nonprofessional to identify.

If the city auditor’s office passes the petition as constitutional, the city attorney determines the ballot measure language and title.

Before the petition goes on the ballot, however, several steps must be taken, and therein is the problem.

Collene Swenson, spokesperson for this action, has already taken five trips to the auditor’s office to file a petition.

Each time, she has dealt with issues of legality or verbiage, but the process can be confusing, and there is little help from officials.

There is a voter information booklet describing how to fill out forms for a petition, but it does not explain the verbal style expected by the officials who make the decisions regarding what is and isn’t acceptable.

Swenson has regularly been told to get an attorney, but she questions why the process must be so complicated. Any citizen with a basic understanding of legal procedures, she feels, should be able to file an acceptable petition to go on the ballot.

She says the reactions she has gotten from the Auditor’s office make her feel as if they wonder, “When will the gnat go away.”

She is hoping to involve a larger citizen base and has reached out to other activist groups.

The current petition, recently submitted, is the fifth effort by the group, and more than anything, she would like their efforts to receive some respect.

On July 24, the most recent version of the petition was filed with the city’s elections office, and published in The Oregonian on Sunday, July 26, 2015.

The ballot title: Amends Charter: Changes Form of City Government asks the question “Shall Portland be governed by nine member council (seven elected by district) and managed by a mayor with executive authority?”

Citizens wishing to review this petition, part of the process, have until Aug. 4, at 5 p.m., to file a petition of review with the Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Swenson and her group need more than 30,000 signatures to get it on the November 2016 ballot.

“We are happy to move forward with the measure,” Swenson said in an email. “I’m looking forward to meeting many of my neighbors as we gather signatures. It will be time consuming but worth the effort to get equal representation for all of us.”

For more information, visit their Portland Community Equality Movement Facebook page, call Swenson at 503-253-8094, or email her at girlhowdy1@me.com.

]]>More than 40 households in east Portland’s Argay Terrace neighborhood signed-up to participate in the neighborhood-wide garage sale Saturday and Sunday, July 25 and 26.

Produced and sponsored by the Argay Neighborhood Association, most sales are open both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to sale coordinator Katie Beymer.

To get to the individual sales, either follow the arrow signs along Northeast Fremont, Northeast Shaver, Northeast 141st Avenue and others scattered throughout the neighborhood by auto, or choose individual sites from the list below.

In addition, maps are available at several sale locations, just ask.

If you are an Argay resident that wants to join, it’s not too late, but hurry.

Email Beymer at argayevents@gmail.com today.

Directional arrows are available for your use.Participating Households (locations indicated by the flags on the Map)

A bank for decades, this Parkrose building, which is currently occupied by Good World Chinese Restaurant & Lounge, closes Sept. 1 for demolition to make way for a new 22,000 sq. ft. structure with a Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree store that are set to open in spring 2016.

To make way for the development next to his former concern in the heart of Parkrose, Ableidinger said he plans to demolish the building currently housing Good World Chinese Restaurant & Lounge at 10721 N.E. Sandy Blvd.

Mark New of New & Neville Real Estate Services walked into Ableidinger’s hardware store 18 months ago and began a conversation with Ableidinger about developing the parcel.

After Ableidinger looked at New & Neville’s work in St. Johns redeveloping a building for an ACE Hardware store and rehabilitating two others for a Grocery Outlet and Dollar Tree that face each other on Lombard Street, he was all-in with the real estate service company. “He took that model of neighborhood redevelopment, saw the Good World property, and showed up in the store one day and talked to me about it,” Ableidinger said in a phone interview. “We’re co-redeveloping that property with him.”

Ableidinger said he doesn’t know how long the approval for his building permit will take, but Good World closes Sept. 1, which is when demolition of the existing structure will begin, to be followed by site preparation for the new building.

Good World owner Wan Su said they found another location nearby for their popular restaurant, but they cannot announce where until they complete negotiations with the property owner. Su said for their customers’ convenience, they plan to stay in the area.

Ableidinger said if all goes as planned, groundbreaking will be this fall, with both stores opening spring 2016.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Ableidinger said. “I think it’s a great addition. Those two going in there is really going to improve the neighborhood; there’s no grocery anywhere around there.”

Portland police and Bureau of Transportation staff conduct a crosswalk enforcement sting tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the marked crosswalk of Northeast Glisan Street at 87th Avenue.

In addition, the crosswalk sting emphasizes summer safety adjacent to Multnomah University and within four blocks of Montavilla City Park, Montavilla Community Center and swimming pool.

Under Oregon law, every intersection is a legal crosswalk whether it is marked or unmarked.

Drivers must stop and stay stopped for pedestrians when the pedestrian is in the motor lane or the adjacent lane (motor lane plus 6’ on either side when the driver is making a turn at a traffic signal).

Each crosswalk education and enforcement action involves a designated pedestrian crossing at a marked or unmarked crosswalk while police monitor how motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians adhere to traffic safety laws.

Drivers failing to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk and pedestrians who fail to follow Oregon traffic laws may be issued a warning or citation.

]]>Friday, on a report someone was attempting to pass a bad check at the Gateway Jiffy Lube, police responded to the business at Northeast 108th Avenue and Halsey Street.

After a brief struggle with police and citizens, Cory Peterson was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges of, among other things, felon in possession of a firearm, delivery of methamphetamine, four counts of identity theft, and resisting arrest after allegedly attempting to pass a bad check at Jiffy Lube in Gateway.

The first officer arriving at the business was flagged down by an employee who was following the suspect, later identified as 37-year-old Cory Allan Peterson.

The officer stopped Peterson to arrest him and began to pat him down for weapons.

When the officer discovered a handgun and two knives in Peterson’s possession, he began to fight with the officer and was taken into custody only after additional officers arrived, with an assist by Good Samaritans, according to police.

The two officers involved in the struggle and Peterson suffered minor injuries and were treated by medical personnel.

After being treated and then released from a local hospital, Peterson was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, felon in possession of a restricted weapon, delivery of methamphetamine, delivery of hydrocodone, four counts of identity theft, possession of a forged instrument in the first degree, and resisting arrest.

With nine-month-old daughter Molly in tow Hazelwood resident Jake Herbst often strolls to the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores near his home to shop. Herbst, a 2003 David Douglas High School graduate said he is looking forward to his first Father’s Day.

This month’s front page features a Happy Father’s Day wish for not only cover subject Jake Herbst, but to fathers everywhere.

June’s features include a story about Lore Wintergreen—the city’s advocate for the East Portland Action Plan–and whether or not she accused at least one volunteer of racism for requiring EPAP grantees to fill out IRS forms.

East Portland activist Collene Swenson is interviewed to find out what her next move is after the attempt to get a ballot measure to de-annex east Portland failed; now it’s city commissioner’s election by geographic representation.

David Douglas School District educator Kevin Topolski was named Teacher of the Year by OnPoint Community Credit Union.

Marking the Memo’s 30th anniversary, we sample what the paper covered in its first edition and provide updates.

]]>Publisher’s note 1: Over the years, the Memo has spoken to many highly cynical individuals who have been involved with East Portland Neighborhood Office‘s system.

Did East Portland Action Plan director Lore Wintergreen, right, call volunteers racist for requiring EPAP grantees to fill out IRS forms before receiving taxpayer funds? According to original meeting minutes taken by Alesia Reese, middle, she did.

There’s a way the system is supposed to work, and then there’s the way the system actually works.

If you haven’t had any interaction with the system, it’s easy to believe everything happens the way it’s supposed to.

The minute you get a taste of it—the minute squatters move in next door; the minute a development threatens your livability; the minute speeders nearly run your kids over; the minute a strip club opens on your street—you see the system close up, but see it in a completely different way.

This is not to say neighbors’ problems aren’t ameliorated. In time, some are. You just understand the way the system actually works and how much it differs from the way it’s supposed to work in theory.

To some readers, the incident described in this article might seem trivial, but it’s an example and symptom of the East Portland Neighborhood Office’s systemic problems—problems which make it less effective at bringing needed infrastructure improvements to east Portland neighborhoods and less relevant to the overall community it was meant to serve.

East Portland Action Plan Advocate Lore Wintergreen, right, poses with EPAP co-chair Arlene Kimura at an EPAP-funded event in 2010. Wintergreen, who makes $130,000 in salary and benefits is not only the highest paid city employee in east Portland, but also EPAP’s only chair since it was created in 2009.

If volunteers who try to follow the law, doing what they believe, and been told what they’re supposed to do, are bullied, intimidated, and even accused of racism, how long before those citizen volunteers refuse to continue to serve?

The following incident is one example of why the city’s neighborhood association system in east Portland becomes less effective every year.

Furthermore, as it becomes more and more removed from the original intention of representing every individual in the neighborhood, the system devolves to representing small groups, individuals and their pet projects.

While infighting ensues, east Portland neighborhoods crumble.

Article: Kathi Holmes had had enough.

The vote to scrub the minutes was the last straw for the longtime neighborhood association volunteer; after more than a dozen years with the East Portland Neighbors, Inc., October 2014 was Kathi Holmes’ last EPN board meeting.

After the meeting, Holmes submitted her resignation as treasurer of the group. According to Holmes, EPN may be paying East Portland Action Plan grantees that either crossed the border illegally or are unauthorized immigrants. “I resigned over that issue,” Holmes said in one of two telephone interviews.

Since 2001, Holmes was EPN’s designated representative from the Wilkes Community Group—the officially recognized neighborhood association on Gresham’s border in outer Northeast Portland—to the EPN board.

In addition, she was EPN’s treasurer. The nonprofit group acts as fiscal sponsor for the 13 officially recognized neighborhood associations administered by the city’s East Portland Neighborhood Office.

In November, Holmes resigned from the EPN board altogether. “I’m going to stick to my neighborhood,” she said. “We have enough problems.”

According to the board meeting’s original minutes, community organizer Wintergreen accused the EPN board of racism and discriminatory practices by requiring EPAP grantees to fill out a W-9 for any expenditure, not just those above $600, as the IRS requires.

From the June 18, 2014 EPN meeting minutes: “Lore Wintergreen, Director of East Portland Action Plan, spoke to the challenges for volunteers to provide EINs and SSNs for payment of services. EPN, as the fiscal sponsor of projects, discriminates against people who do not have this information. The Board’s actions are racist. Ms. Wintergreen informed the Board that if the W-9 policy was adopted, East Portland Action Plan Board would not refer participants, projects or programs to EPN for fiscal sponsorship. She referenced the EPAP Board’s position as in opposition to the EPN Board’s W-9 policy.”

Is filling out a W-9 unusual?
The W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and Certification is one of the IRS’ most commonly used forms.

Generally, the TIN is your social security number, unless you fill it out as a business or corporation, in which case it’s called an Employer Identification Number (EIN).

If you can’t fill out a W-9, there’s a good chance you don’t have a SSN, either because you entered the country illegally by crossing the border or overstayed your visa. In some cases it also may mean that the recipient is trying to evade paying taxes.

Simmering issue
The discussion whether to require W-9s for any expenditure to individuals that act as grant personnel has been going on for more than a year, according to EPN board members who spoke to the Memo.

The grants in question are primarily going to Spanish-speaking individuals to organize east Portland Latinos, brief them on their rights as residents, issue Mexican consular cards to those without identification and solicit community policing assistance.

Even after Holmes showed Wintergreen the law, she still accused Holmes of discrimination. “If you’re a good citizen,” Holmes said, “shouldn’t you follow the laws of your government?” To Holmes, it wasn’t an issue of who the people were, it was what the people were doing and what Holmes had been asked to do in her role as treasurer.

When the issue finally came up for a vote at the June 2014 meeting, the minutes say Wintergreen threatened EPN board members who did not agree with her position to pack up her grants and go home.

Questioning Wintergreen’s grantees’ refusal to fill out W-9s caused her outburst at the meeting, according to Holmes.

However, at the October meeting, by a vote of 4-2 with one abstention, June’s minutes were changed to read: “There were public comments made.” Therefore, officially, Wintergreen did not say what the minutes said she said. It’s as if it never happened. In effect, it is a possible cover-up or rewrite of history.

“This is taxpayers’ money,” Holmes said. “You have to know who you’re paying—all I was doing was trying to follow the law.” She added, “They [EPAP] wouldn’t give a W-9 for several people [EPAP grantees]; according to immigration law, you can’t pay undocumented workers zip, nothing.”
Holmes said she did not want to sign documents containing falsehoods and felt forced into signing EPN’s 2013 financial statement.

Furthermore, Holmes said she felt intimidated by fellow EPN board members over the issue to drop it. “They didn’t take the issue seriously,” she said. “I felt bullied by several people on the board. ‘Don’t you ever break a law?’ they’d ask me.”

One of the EPN board members that Holmes said bullied her was David Hampsten, a large, imposing man who admits to being a bully, but only for east Portland transportation issues. “I bully transportation officials to get improvements in east Portland,” Hampsten said in a telephone interview. “If I bullied someone [at EPN], I have no recollection, and no one told me I did, so how would I know if I did?”

East Portland Neighbors board member David Hampsten testifies At a Comprehensive Plan hearing in 2011. Hampsten is accused of bullying a fellow EPN board member into signing false financial statements. A self-described “bully for east Portland transportation issues,” Hampsten denies he pressured anyone.

Hampsten—EPN’s financial secretary since 2009—said Holmes was negligent in her treasurer duties because she did not collect W-9 information. “Our previous treasurer was so negligent she never actually contacted them [grant service providers] to get the forms filled out.” This criticism further supports the reasonableness of Holmes’ request that W-9s be provided by Wintergreen.

Hampsten admits the word “racist” was used at the June 2014 meeting, and while he doesn’t know who used it, he’s sure it wasn’t Wintergreen. “Lore Wintergreen did not say anyone was racist,” Hampsten said. Because there were so many people in the room speaking at once, Hampsten could not say who used the word, but he heard it.

“There were 15 people in the room [12, according to the minutes],” Hampsten added. “The person who wrote the minutes [Alesia Reese] was not necessarily an impartial minute taker,” Hampsten said.

Furthermore, he said that even though he disagrees and voted against the policy change, he enforces the board’s will.

Who’s talking and who’s not?
EPAP co-chair Arlene Kimura—technically Wintergreen’s volunteer civilian boss—also did not respond to phone calls. However, in an email, Kimura said, “As I am close to 70, I tend to forget things or the order of things, and my hearing may be less than complete,” despite regularly leading meetings.

One of the questions posed to both Kimura and Wintergreen that neither deigned to answer was “Why is it discriminatory and racist to ask someone to fill out a W-9?”

Seven of the 10 EPN board members at the disputed meeting talked to the Memo. depending on whom you talk to, Wintergreen either said it or didn’t, or she was following Kimura’s orders to tell EPN members that they are racist and discriminatory—or they hung up the phone when the Memo asked them about that part of the meeting.

Wintergreen declined to be interviewed for this story. She would not take phone calls, but in reply to an email from the Memo, she said, “Should you choose to pursue collecting this information further, you are welcome to complete a formal public records request.”

Another longtime EPN board member (2003), officer of the group and its current president, Reese took the June 2014 meeting’s minutes and did not respond to more than a half-dozen phone messages or answer the same number of email requests for comment until the Memo caught up with her at a recent EPN meeting.

Asked who called whom a racist at the June meeting, Reese said, “There was a conflict.” She added, “Those minutes were not approved, they were modified.” Pressed whether Wintergreen accused Holmes of racism as she recorded in her original minutes, Reese was unable to recall. “I have had how many meetings since then?” she said. “I would have to recollect some.”

Asked how many meetings she attends where people accuse each other of racism, she said it happens “infrequently.” Adding, “Because those minutes were under review for a long time, other people heard differently; the board did not accept the minutes as written. Let’s just say that.”

Publisher’s note 2: What did I learn? After more than a decade Kathi Holmes, a dedicated, unpaid citizen volunteer, called it quits.

Criticized by at least one EPN Board Member for not obtaining W-9 forms, she appears to have taken a verbal beating for conscientiously doing her job. A salaried city employee may or may not have strongly bullied her and refused to provide the requested (and Holmes believes required) information.

The city may be not only paying illegal aliens for work, but also their very hiring could be considered illegal. Were racist comments made, and if so, by whom? It is difficult to discern, as others in the room appear to have memory issues.

What is clear is the record of the meeting was changed, four months after the incident, and those with the acknowledged faulty memories voted to change that record. Was the record wrong and corrected? Was it corrected and “Watergated”? We’ll never know. What we do know is this is no way to run an organization.

In upcoming editions, the Memo takes a closer look at the warp and woof—the East Portland Neighborhood Office staff, neighborhood groups and the individuals who lead them—of east Portland’s neighborhood system.

EPNO oversees the 13 neighborhood associations east of 82nd Avenue (excluding Madison South) to the boundary with Gresham and the Clackamas County line to the south.

Neighborhood associations are not representative; they are participatory bodies.

That’s a large area, about 25 percent of the city.

EPNO provides support for neighborhood associations’ governance and activities. In addition, funded through the Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) by city council, it currently funds five staff positions.

Since its creation in 1999, Richard Bixby has been EPNO’s only director. He makes $93,300 in salary and benefits.

The rest of the EPNO staff oversees and supports activities of the 13 neighborhood associations.

What is EPAP?
Through ONI, city council also funds the East Portland Action Plan.

Like Bixby, Lore Wintergreen has been its only advocate since inception in 2009 (“East Portland Action Plan adopted amid lovefest” MCM March, 2009).

The autonomous advocate, who is paid $130,000 a year in salary and benefits, runs her program under volunteer co-chairs.

Wintergreen advocates for fixing what is wrong in east Portland by creating committees, holding hundreds of meetings where visioning plans and action items are formulated and grant projects emanate.

Other than the pass-through grants it makes, EPAP does none of the actual work; it only advocates for the city to plan to make east Portland better.

In the attempt to get bureau management to, at the very least, plan to buy into her plans, and for wont of a better term, Wintergreen nags staff at city bureaus responsible for doing the actual work.

Is EPAP effective?
According to a 2014 report from the city auditor’s office, “East Portland: History of City Services Examined,” EPAP has “… helped to focus policy makers’ attention on East Portland and has been an effective organizing tool that has encouraged collaboration.”

The report adds, “However, we found there are too many identified actions to be achieved within the plan’s ambitious timelines.”

The auditor’s report sampled 16 EPAP actions that have been either partially or fully completed.

The report said EPAP “did not directly cause the action” in nine of them. In five cases EPAP “strongly influenced the action,” and in one item “directly caused the action,” through a grant for a mobile playground.

What is EPN?
East Portland Neighbors, Inc. is another added layer of volunteer bureaucracy that acts as fiscal agent for the 13 neighborhood associations under EPNO’s umbrella. EPN is a membership-based, public-benefit nonprofit corporation, as defined by Oregon law.

EPN meets bimonthly. The 501(c)(3) acts as fiscal agent for not only Office of Neighborhood Involvement taxpayer-funded grants but also East Portland Action Plan grant projects.

The EPN board is comprised of one representative member from each of the 13 neighborhood associations. Nine EPNO neighborhood associations regularly send representatives.

In addition, EPN publishes a newspaper, the East Portland Neighborhood Association News (EPNAN).

When the city annexed Mid-county, East Portland Neighbors was the name of the original nonprofit coalition of neighbors founded in 1987, before it flamed out in dissension, causing the city to step in and create the East Portland Neighbors Office.

Alesia Reese has not only been chair of her Woodland Park Neighborhood Association since it was carved from Parkrose Heights, but is also one of the founders of the reformed EPN, serving as its chair. She is also her neighborhood’s representative.

The same eight or nine people who govern EPN run their respective neighborhood associations (see current EPN members below).
Alesia Reese—PresidentWoodland Park Neighborhood Association
EPN Director since 2003, EPN President since 2014